SoCal Minds

Aerospace history project takes wing with grant

From the Huntington

Scholars will spend the next two years collecting oral histories and materials related to the history of an endeavor that shaped Southern California's industrial and intellectual might for decades after the Great War but has seen its fortunes decline in recent days. The National Science Foundation has provided a $367,000 grant so researchers can further amass invaluable papers and other crucial items that answer the questions as to why Southern California became such a key aerospace center and what that has meant for the region, nation and science. At one point, aerospace employed more than a half million Southern Californians in skilled, high paying work and 40% of the missile and space business was here, researchers say, adding that the history of this once-dynamic industry has been little explored and recorded. The topic has gained recent new attention and impetus with the announced move to Washington by Northrup Grumman of its corporate headquarters, a visible symbol of the industry's decline locally. The aerospace project will be conducted jointly by the library, the Institute on California and the West and USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Photo: Amelia Earhart at Lockheed Aircraft factory in Burbank, circa 1930/ Harvey Christen collection, the Huntington

The official announcement of aerospace history project

A glimpse of some of the kinds of key materials to be collected

End of the aerospace century: a recent LA Observed guest blog post

A call for care as U.S. withdraws forces from Iraq

From RAND

While the U.S. incursion in Iraq may not dominate the headlines as it once did, a well-crafted, thoughtful withdrawal from the American presence there will matter hugely to the stability in the region, analysts in Santa Monica say. They urge U.S. planners to take careful note of the interests of the minority Kurdish population in Northern Iraq and to ensure those are not overrun by the Arab majority. The Americans also will need to continue their military, political, diplomatic and economic juggling act to tamp down tensions among the Shiite and Sunni factions. The reduced violence among the groups has given Iraq greater stability in recent days but they remain restive and potentially violent, even as the U.S. draws down its troops and its ability to project peace-keeping force. The researchers recommend increased U.S. support of Iraqi security forces so they can attempt to keep a more enduring calm in their country.  

Stability in region depends on striking balances among Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis 

Click here for full RAND report

Faculty, staff help neighborhood a million ways

From USC

More than 350 organizations that work with the university to put kids on the path to college, that aim to make the city's streets safer for families and that improve the health of residents surrounding the school will benefit from a record-breaking $1.2 million in donatations by Trojan faculty and staff to the Good Neighbors Campaign. Even in the current tough economic times, the education school, KUSC, the Fisher Museum and the offices of the treasurer, senior vice president , administration,  health sciences libraries and USCard Services all had 100% participation in giving. This program, which supports tutoring, mentorship and teaching of area kids, started under the direction of President Steven B. Sample, who is stepping down, in reaction to rioting in Los Angeles. He pressed his colleagues to make it a goal to aid the neighborhoods around the Trojans and to try to see that every kid in the area had contact and was known by name by someone in the university community and that the youngsters had the educational and cultural opportunities to let them advance their schooling, including college. 

Record-setting 'Good Neighbors Campaign,' even in tough economic times

On latest shuttle flight, space-walking 11th alum

From Caltech

When the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off just before dawn, in what may be the program's final night lift off, there was special attention and enthusiasm in Pasadena for the launch and the prospective mission. That's because one of the six astronauts is a school alum -- the 11th to go from the Rose City into space as a NASA astronaut. Robert Behnken, an alum, 1997 Ph.D. and Air Force lieutenant colonel, is a mission specialist aboard the current shuttle flight, for which he is scheduled to conduct three space walks lasting around six hours each to help build out he orbiting space station. He's already traveled to space on a previous Endeavour mission, on which he ventured on three earlier space walks. Behnken, a mechanical engineer, has been business-like in discussing his flights, noting the space walks can be strenuous and require a lot of gym time to train for.

Astronaut alum hopes to add three more space walks to his tally

Low hanging fruit to improve neighborhoods

From CalArts, LACMA

If the neighbor spent a sunny Sunday planting a new fruit tree, there may be an easy explanation why: Catching up on an intriguing idea aimed at benefiting, improving life in Los Angeles. If It appeals, by the way, pop over and vote for it so it possibly qualifies for more aid, spreading more widely.

Valencia connection to push to spread fruit trees in LA, TJ

Where art, activism, eating and neighborhood improvement interesect

Click here to help seed $250,000 in aid for project

In Irvine, a scan for cyber threats of next decade

From UCI

With global attention focused on the fracas between Google and China over hacking and cyber threats, good to know that the folks in Irvine's Secure Computing and Networking Center are working overtime to avert net terrorism. Though the school offers a piece that provides a good briefing on existing challenges -- including botnets, malware, viruses, identity theft and issues with those proliferating RFID (radio frequency) tags in credit cards, badges and passports -- the researchers hearken to history and remind of the role that old-fashioned math plays in their work, albeit on the super computational levels. They're also hoping that their work now, in the midst of rapid-fire technological changes, also is looking out as much as a decade from now for what will matter then in computer security. 

Photo: cyber security researchers Michael Goodrich, l, Gene Tsudik / Paul R. Kennedy, UCI

Playing net defense no easy task in era of rapidly changing technology 

Korean exchange accords for Trojans, Bruins

From USC & UCLA

A big day for new and renewed agreements between two major schools in a reminder that Los Angeles is a significant metropolis for those of Korean descent. The Trojans struck a deal with the equivalent of the South Korean congress for an exchange program that not only will result in shuttling staff and elected officials between Seoul and Exhibition Park, it also will lead to the opening of a new outreach center for the school in Koreatown to improve relations with the local community there. Even as the exchange pact was hailed as the first of its kind with an American university and signed overseas, officials of a top South Korean university were in Westwood renewing and expanding their relationship with the Bruins. Dongguk University has maintained long ties in Los Angeles, particularly for those studying Buddhism but the Bruins hope their latest agreement will expand exchanges between Seoul and LA, which has one of the largest Korean populations on the planet outside the Korean peninsula. 

Koreatown outreach center is part of Trojan pact with S. Korean lawmakers

Bruins hope long-time Buddhist studies accord will expand to exchanges with Seoul 

Lions hear humanitarian appeal, act to aid Haiti

From Loyola Marymount

In Westchester, where eight of 10 students take on some kind of public service, a much-praised humanitarian has exhorted the compassionate to get down and dirty and to do even more to help the planet's needy. And, at the same time, some Lions are doing just that with a project that challenges them to transform the mundane into something more magical. Even as "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson praised his student audience for their volunteering, he told them they need to go out among the poor, to help educate them, to let them better understand their culture and vice-versa, and, most important, to empower them to improve their own lives and situations. That's the aim of some business students on campus with a novel fund-raiser to aid quake-ravaged Haiti. In their class, they must take an ordinary object and find a way to give it new, greater value. The item picked for this assignment? A paper bag. They're asking Samaritans to cut up that bag and to make a paper doll from it, then to attach $1 or more in a Haiti relief donation to it. They hope to raise $20,000 with their work, which has included setting up a Facebook fan page, enlisting the support of Trader Joe's for paper bags and getting school kids to take part by making paper dolls and getting grown-up donors. As for Mortenson, he is continuing his school building, writing and other anti-poverty battles in Central Asia, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Photo: Is this outline to cut up a bag into a paper doll a $20,000 aid to Haiti quake victims?

'Three Cups of Tea' author urges hands-on battle on poverty

Can simple paper bags turn into $20,000 in paper dolls to help Haiti quake vicitims?

A pro bono plea to law students, lawyers, judges

*From Claremont McKenna College & Southwestern

Calling all law students, lawyers and jurists: Some ambitious undergrads need help as they conduct the American Mock Trial Association's regional tournament in the midst of tough economic times. The aspiring legal eagles out in Claremont run their mock trial program with student leadership and without the common trappings of hovering faculty and attorney counsel. That can make the hurdles huge for them in handling the logistics and finances of conducting the Feb. 20-21 event in Southern California in which they say 30 teams with more than 200 competitors from three states will take part. The state budget crisis really complicated their planning as they could not secure donated courtroom space as they had in the past. But the college president and a state lawmaker have pitched in so they now will partner with Southwestern Law School and the Los Angeles Superior Courts. Southwestern is providing the mock trial program financial support and use of its facilities, while Assemblyman Mike Eng's office helped secure the use of the Stanley Mosk courthouse. Now, though, the students need at least 100 volunteers with legal training to judge the competition.

*Full disclosure: I'm a writing and editing consultant for Southwestern Law School

Undergrads running mock trial program seek 100 legally trained judges

Click here to learn more, volunteer

AIDS vaccine? Promotion, education needed

From UCLA

Though a much-hoped for vaccination against HIV-AIDs remains elusive and years away, it will, once developed, also require extensive education and promotion to be accepted by those who might benefit most from it because of their high risk of contracting the disease that infects 55,000 Americans annually, say researchers who have just conducted a survey of more than 1,000 Angelenos in STD clinics, needle-exchange programs and in sites offering primary care to Latinos. The survey found that high-risk recipients will get an HIV-AIDS shot if they believe the vaccine is effective, dependent on its side-effects and what it might cost. Given scenarios in which cost and effectiveness varied, those surveyed, on average, gave the potential inoculation an overall acceptance score of 55 out of 100. A disturbing note: 10% of those asked indicated that, depending on how well the vaccine prevented the disease -- and researchers underscore that no immunization is 100% prevention perfect -- they might engage in riskier behaviors.

High-risk folks balk at HIV-AIDS vaccine on efficacy, side-effects, cost